May 4 - Feeding the 800,000

In Bangladesh, thousands of Rohingya refugees have settled in camps. ADRA International president, visits one of these camps to share the challenges and what ADRA is doing to help.

Greetings from Bangladesh.

I'm here today as we're doing
a food distribution

to the Rohingya refugee camp.

This week, we'll be providing food,

and I've just been to another camp
where we're providing shelter.

As I've sit here,
and I look at the needs that exist

and I feel the pride that comes to me
as I see the staff at work,

it reminds me of the great work
that ADRA does.

As I pass through this camp,

and I'm reminded of the ingenuity
of the Rohingya people,

their ability to survive

and still etch out some kind of a living
in these difficult conditions,

and I came across here
with this fish market.

As I looked at the fish market,
it reminded me of the story in the Bible

of the five loaves and the two fishes,

where the people were hungry
and they came to Christ.

He blessed the food and he multiplied it.

We are distributing food
to 19,000 families.

That's around about
a hundred thousand people.

But all up, there's 800,000 people
in these refugee camps--

all of them hungry,
all of them in need of a blessing,

all of them in need of a miracle.

And perhaps it reminds me
that maybe, we can be that miracle.

That through our generosity,
that we can help to multiply this fish,

that we can help to bring food
to the starving people

here amongst these Rohingya camps.

It's a great honor and privilege

to be able to feed 100,000 people
this week,

bringing them food for two weeks.

But what about beyond those two weeks,

and what about those
who we're yet to touch?

And so, as I'm reminded of the way
that God blessed in the Bible,

I'm reminded that He is still a God
that blesses today,

that He's placed us here
with a reason and a purpose.

I'm also reminded
of the "Woman at the Well"

where she met Jesus.

He offered her the water
that shall never run dry.

In this particular refugee camp,

we have a difficulty
with the supply of water.

At the refugee camp
that I visited yesterday,

it was more inland,
and there was a number of wells.

But if we sink wells in this region,

where we're close to the coast
all that we get is salty water

which is not drinkable.

And so we're dependent upon shipping
by gravity-fed water system,

piping water from the mountains nearby
to try and bring clean water.

But unfortunately, the water supply
is not adequate,

and so we actually have
a water shortage in this camp--

around a hundred thousand people,

and we have a great need for water.

And so just as we need
to provide people with the water,

water from the well
that should never run dry,

we also need water here
because water is life.

Before we can talk to them
about life in general,

we have to meet their needs,

and thirst is a very real need
of the people here in this camp.

And so I'd just ask you
to be generous in your support

for ADRA in this work,

as we try and help these people
who have suffered much,

who've suffered much trauma,

have been driven from their homes
where they had comfort,

where they had businesses,

driven with automatic weapons
fired at them,

losing family members as they fled,

and now they come here
to a situation of dire need.